2013 is officially over. It’s been an amazing year for Smyrna Vinings home sales as they continue to grow. Sales have continued to grow throughout the year and are reaching levels that we never thought could happen just a couple years ago. How much longer can we expect this to keep going? Typically we see lower sales in November through January, but that wasn’t the case last year and will be interesting to see what happens this year.

This chart shows you the past 12 months of home sales at any given point. As you’ll notice, the green bar is 2007 and we were selling a fair amount more homes in 2007. Sales dropped significantly in 2008, with the drop becoming more pronounced toward the last quarter of 2008. That would be the beginning of the financial meltdown. 2009 home sales started off about 32% off the level just two years previously in January 2007. We saw Smyrna Vinings home sales continue to drop in 2009, but then leveling off in late summer and actually seeing sales pick up toward the end of the year. Typically, you expect sales to be higher in the late Spring and early Summer, but that hasn’t been the case in 2007-2010.

We’ve experienced a marked surge in Smyrna Vinings home sales over the past year. Traditionally, home sales level off in the late Fall/Winter. However, that was not the case, particularly with strong December sales spilling into this Spring. Low interest rates and great prices continue to drive Smyrna Vinings home buyer demand. We’ve surpassed 2008 sales levels and are working towards 2007 levels, something that we didn’t really think would be possible during 2009-2011. Sales volumes were so much lower back then we didn’t know if volumes would ever get back to 2007-2008 levels.

Interest rates have been slowly increasing, but it certainly has dampened buyers appetites for buying a Smyrna home. Pending sales are down slightly at the end of December, so we’ll see how January shapes up in a month.

The Active Listings chart depicts Smyrna Vinings homes currently for sale. The general shape of the annual graphs are pretty consistent until we get to this year. What is different is that we’re just seeing a lot fewer homes on the market than in years. As a general rule, we’ve seen inventory increase in the April to June range and then see the amount of Smyrna Vinings homes for sale reduce towards the end of the year. While sales and months of inventory numbers vary drastically from previous years, the one thing you can count on is that inventory decreases in the last quarter of the year, as indicated above. The big difference of course is that the overall number of homes on the market is just much less than in years past due to homes selling so quickly.

As sales are improving, we’re also seeing prices increasing as well. We’re going to continue to see more equity sellers in the market and fewer distressed properties as we move forward over the next couple years. This will result in continued low inventory levels as the number of equity sellers that can afford to sell will be outnumbered by buyers eager to take advantage of prices that are still depressed and interest rates that are phenomenal. If you’ve thought about selling and just aren’t sure, be sure to contact us or find out how much your home is worth. Less competition is a good thing if you’re ready to sell.

One other important statistic that we like to track is the overall health of the Smyrna Vinings home market. Months of inventory is a calculation that takes the current amount of homes for sale and divides that by the number of homes that have sold in the last 12 months. What the result means is if no more homes were listed, how many months would it take, based upon the past 12 months activity, to sell all the homes currently for sale.

A result of 6 months is considered a healthy market, less than 6 months a seller’s market and more than 6 months, a buyer’s market. What we can see from the chart above is that we have lower inventory levels right now than at any point in the past five years. Compare that with the highest amount of bloat and most severe buyer’s market in July of 2009 with significant improvement starting in mid-2010 and continuing through today.

In December, inventory levels decreased further from last month to 3.08 months of inventory and have decreased compared to 3.55 months just a year ago. As prices have increased this year, we have seen a big pickup in new construction and an increase in resale activity as more home owners can afford to sell. Pending contracts at the end of December decreased 10% over November. Technically, we are now in a seller’s market based on current inventory levels. What this means as you will continue to see prices slowly rise from here as demand outpaces supply.

That is your Smyrna Vinings homes sales activity recap for December 2013. Hope that was helpful and don’t hesitate to contact us if we can help you sell your Smyrna Vinings home or find your new Smyrna Vinings home.

Related

Aaron Hofmann is the founder of SmyrnaVinings.com and also a Realtor with Atlanta Communities focused on the Smyrna real estate market and the Vinings real estate market. Aaron is a transplant from the Midwest (amazingly not a native Atlantan) and has lived in the Smyrna Vinings area for over 10 years. Find Aaron Hofmann on Google+

Testimonials

Wendy

"Aaron did such a great job. He is efficient and professional. Once we got our house on the market, immediately we had agents making appointments to look at our house. A little over a month we had an offer. Aaron sold our house much quicker than we had anticipated. We would definitely recommend him to anyone."

- Wendy

5.0

2015-06-02T16:33:32+00:00

- Wendy

"Aaron did such a great job. He is efficient and professional. Once we got our house on the market, immediately we had agents making appointments to look at our house. A little over a month we had an offer. Aaron sold our house much quicker than we had anticipated. We would definitely recommend him to anyone."

http://smyrnavinings.com/testimonials/wendy/

Jeremy & Leslie

We had a wonderful homebuying experience with Aaron. He is very prompt to return emails and phone calls. He was always available to answer our questions and offer advice. He made sure that we had all the little details in our contract and made sure that everything was taken care of before our closing. We also know that even after purchasing our home, that we can still reach out to him. My mom also used him during her purchase as well and had a good experience too!

-Jeremy & Leslie

5.0

2015-06-02T16:45:01+00:00

-Jeremy & Leslie

We had a wonderful homebuying experience with Aaron. He is very prompt to return emails and phone calls. He was always available to answer our questions and offer advice. He made sure that we had all the little details in our contract and made sure that everything was taken care of before our closing. We also know that even after purchasing our home, that we can still reach out to him. My mom also used him during her purchase as well and had a good experience too!

http://smyrnavinings.com/testimonials/11372/

Matt

I had a great experience with Aaron doing my short-sale. He really helped to break down the process and left me feeling a little more comfortable with the entire process. It was nice to have someone like him to deal with the negotiations with the bank and I felt like he looked after my best interests. Would definitely recommend him to someone in metro Atlanta again.

- Matt

5.0

2015-06-03T04:20:43+00:00

- Matt

I had a great experience with Aaron doing my short-sale. He really helped to break down the process and left me feeling a little more comfortable with the entire process. It was nice to have someone like him to deal with the negotiations with the bank and I felt like he looked after my best interests. Would definitely recommend him to someone in metro Atlanta again.

http://smyrnavinings.com/testimonials/11376/

Kathleen

I have worked with Aaron on several occasions while looking for a home in Smyrna. It was great to pick his brain because he is very knowledgeable about the area, and I trusted his judgment. He is professional, experienced and is there when you need him. I had previously worked with an agent who was not as knowledgeable or experienced so Aaron was a real treat! I have already recommended him to my daughter (who used his services and was also pleased) and friends.

- Kathleen

5.0

2015-06-03T04:22:47+00:00

- Kathleen

I have worked with Aaron on several occasions while looking for a home in Smyrna. It was great to pick his brain because he is very knowledgeable about the area, and I trusted his judgment. He is professional, experienced and is there when you need him. I had previously worked with an agent who was not as knowledgeable or experienced so Aaron was a real treat! I have already recommended him to my daughter (who used his services and was also pleased) and friends.

http://smyrnavinings.com/testimonials/11377/

Robert & Lisa

Best Realtor ever! He is incredibly helpful, professional, personable, understanding, patient, and reliable. We had to search for months through countless homes until we found the one we love, and Aaron was there supporting us every step of the way. He is awesome! Look no further for the perfect Realtor.

- Robert & Lisa

5.0

2015-06-03T04:30:13+00:00

- Robert & Lisa

Best Realtor ever! He is incredibly helpful, professional, personable, understanding, patient, and reliable. We had to search for months through countless homes until we found the one we love, and Aaron was there supporting us every step of the way. He is awesome! Look no further for the perfect Realtor.

http://smyrnavinings.com/testimonials/11380/

5.0

5

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